Lean on Me and you will be okay

Hola!

It's finally P-day! P-day was Friday this week because those going to Mexico on their missions had to go to the Mexican Consulate and get our immigration visas. 

Also, I heard it snowed in Georgia! That´s crazy!! All the same, it's actually ridiculously cold here as well. There´s no heat or AC in any of the buildings on campus, and it is surprisingly cold every day. We can see our breath walking to class in the morning. So, I´m currently really, really grateful for the long PJ/workout pants I got right before leaving, because I currently wear like 5 layers of clothing to bed and have 5 layers of blankets. In the picture, I'm wearing my pants, both sleep dresses, then one of cardigans, then a giant tee shirt Delta gave me when they lost my luggage (which has since been found, it actually was shipped here the next day. Sorry I forgot to include that in my last email). 

Last week our district had the opportunity to attend the Mexico City Temple and let me tell you, It is gorgeous and huge! It's the largest temple ouside the United States and has three stories with escalators!! I was really glad the sweet temple workers were very good about being at every turn so none of the clueless American Missionaries got lost. Also, doing an Endowment session in spanish was super, super cool, 

Another fun thing this past week was the Virgin Guadalupe Day. It's the 12th of December here and in the Catholic church, there's a huge Basillica in Mexico City that's the 3rd holiest place in the world in the Catholic church. And so, every year the12th of December there's a huge, festive pilgrimage to the Basillica. The fireworks technically started at 5:30 in the morning that day and they were everywhere. There's almost always a few random fireworks every two days or so, but this day was crazy! the fireworks lasted literally the entire day, virtually non-stop. It was epic. 

Honestly, though, the biggest news this week started a couple of weeks ago, when one of the teachers noticed that Hermana Flnders, my companion, and I were breezing through the basic Spanish classes here. Both of us are classified as intermediate speakers, which means that we son't speak well enough to be put in the three week program with a Latina companion, but we're also not beginner speakers. Usually, they separate out the intermediate speakers into their own district, but at this time of the year, there's not tons of missionaries coming through the CCM and so we're in the district with beginner speakers, Which is completely fine, I absolutely love my district. They are awesome. It does mean, however, that like our teacher noticed, we tend to be a little under challenged a lt of times in the language classes and also tend to act as human dictionaries for our district. She told us about a program, that's rather recent around here, where Intermediate speakers can take a (ridiculously hard) grammar test, and if their teachers give them the okay, they can join Latino district for their last three weeks here. I prayed about, and let's be honest, I love a good challenge, so I decided to take the test and so did Hermana Flinders mostly just to see if we would even qualify. That was within my first week here and no one had said anything to either of us, so we more or less forgot about it and assumed we didn't qualify. 

This past Tuesday, one of the teaching supervisors pulled us out of class and told us we were going to do a trial run with a Latino district for an hour during one of their teaching exercises and we were shocked because this was just kind of sprung on us and caught us out of the blue. We were also told we had until Thursday at 4 to make our decision. And then we were taken to the teaching practice. And it went okay. The Hermana I was paired up with was from Ecuador, and Hermana Flindes and I actually sit with her and her district quite a bit at lunch or dinner, so I knew she talked really quietly. And, that was probably the problem for the entire time we were trying to practice teaching together is that I could not hear her, much less understand her.

So, here I am, facing what feels like huge decision and I can't even judge how well I'm going to be able to keep up in a Latino District, so I did what any missionary does. I turned to Lord. I didn't want to leave my district behind. Or my companion. I really, really love them. And I also have no idea if I can understand Spanish well enough to do this. But at the same time, I'm going to have to leave them in three more weeks anyway, and if I'm going to be with a Latina companion for the next eighteen months, it might be a good idea to start here, in a safe environment were there are a lot of bilingual people around to help me if I need it. With this decison weighing very heavily on our minds, Hermnaa Flinders and I decided to pray, and fast, and get priesthood blessings. The entire time I was fasting, there were just little things that were telling me that I can't grow as much as I want, as much as the Lord needs me to grow, unless I went to a Latino district. Nothing big, no overwhelming feeling, but lots of little feelings that kept saying "Go, and lean on me, and you will be okay." 

So that's what I'm going to do. Both Hermana Flinders and I chose to do the program. Next week, we'll be given Latino companions, and we'll leave our district and I still don't know if I understand enough Spanish and I don't know if Hermana Flinders and I will be placed in the same district, but unless the MTC presidency doesn't  approve, I'm going to be relying on the Lord for the next three weeks and it's going to be a little rough at first, but He won't leave me alone and I know I'll be okay. 

I know this gospel is true. I know the Lord hears and answers my prayers, because I can feel Him helping me day by day to learn the language, and love those around me and to help me teach what my practice investigators need to hear. I would not be the person I am without Him, without His gospel, without the knowledge that I can grow and change through His Son's Atoning Sacrifice for me. 

Con mi amor eterno,

Hermana Rawlings